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Promising Practices

The Promising Practices database informs professionals and community members about documented approaches to improving community health and quality of life.

The ultimate goal is to support the systematic adoption, implementation, and evaluation of successful programs, practices, and policy changes. The database provides carefully reviewed, documented, and ranked practices that range from good ideas to evidence-based practices.
Learn more about the ranking methodology.

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Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) Participation and Health Care Expenditures Among Low-Income Adults

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Older Adults

Goal: To determine whether the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which addresses food insecurity, can reduce health care expenditures.

The Adolescent Parenting Program (Newark, NJ)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Family Planning, Teens, Women, Urban

Goal: This program aimed to improve birth and early child outcomes among high-risk pregnant and parenting adolescents.

The Chinese Women's Health Project (Seattle, Washington)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Cancer, Women, Racial/Ethnic Minorities

Goal: The program aimed to increase the rate of cervical cancer screening in Chinese women living in North America in response to research findings of significantly lower cervical cancer screening rates in Chinese women.

Impact: This intervention program found that women who received an intervention had cervical cancer screenings at a higher rate than those who did not receive any intervention. This shows that culturally and linguistically appropriate interventions might help improve Pap testing rates among Chinese women.

The Eastern Virginia Care Transitions Partnership (Urbanna, VA)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Older Adults, Older Adults

Goal: Reduce hospital/nursing home readmissions and improve care for older adults.

Impact: Reduced 30-day readmission rate from 18.2 to 8.9 percent over the course of 2 years, resulting in estimated savings of more than $17 million through 1,804 avoided readmissions.

The Incredible Years®

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Community / Social Environment, Children, Families

Goal: The Incredible Years® Parents, Teachers, and Children Training Series has two long-range goals. The first goal is to develop comprehensive treatment programs for young children with early onset conduct problems. The second goal is the development of cost-effective, community-based, universal prevention programs that all families and teachers of young children can use to promote social competence and to prevent children from developing conduct problems in the first place.

Impact: Studies have shown that children who participate in the programs demonstrate significant improvements in school readiness, emotional regulation, and social skills, as well as reductions in behavior problems in the classroom.

The PanAfrican Acupuncture Project (Brookline, MA)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Alternative Medicine

Goal: The goal of the PanAfrican Acupuncture Project is to train locals in acupuncture techniques so that they can use this alternative healing method in their communities to treat symptoms of HIV/AIDS, malaria, and TB.

Beginning Education Early: Strengthening Rural Alabama Families (Choctaw County, AL)

Filed under Effective Practice, Education / Childcare & Early Childhood Education, Children, Families, Rural

Goal: The BEE Program seeks to strengthen parents' abilities to provide the physical and emotional support necessary for children's healthy growth and development by giving them otherwise unavailable access to parenting and early childhood education.

Better Choices, Better Health (USA)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Other Conditions, Adults, Older Adults

Goal: Better Choices, Better HealthTM gives people with chronic conditions the skills to coordinate all the things needed to manage their heath, as well as to help them keep active in their lives.

BRIDGE (Elyria, OH)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Adolescent Health, Teens

Goal: The goal of this program is to educate teen parents about pregnancy, birthing, and parenting.

An Effective Practice meets the following HCI criteria:

  1. The program description includes at a minimum: the sponsoring organization, program goals, program implementation steps, and outcomes that have demonstrated program success and/or promise in achieving the program goal in one or more localities.
  2. The results from an evaluation of the program include quantitative measures of improvement in outcome of interest (i.e. increase in voter registration, not just delivery of voter registration drive) and/ or the outcome measure is increased or improved compared to the baseline measurement or the control group but the difference is not statistically significant.

A Good Idea meets the following HCI criteria:

  1. The program description includes: the sponsoring organization, program goals, program funding source, program implementation steps and outcomes.
  2. The program evaluation is limited to descriptive measure(s) of success/accomplishment (i.e., program participation rates, number of services/education sessions/radio messages provided). Note: oftentimes, the program has been newly implemented and a program evaluation has not yet been conducted. Programs that have not yet been evaluated, but which show promise in improving health or quality of life, are classified as Good Ideas until an evaluation is conducted.

An Evidence-Based Practice meets the following HCI criteria:

  1. The program description includes at a minimum: the sponsoring organization, program goals, program implementation steps, and outcomes that have demonstrated program success in achieving the program goal in one or more localities.
  2. The results from an evaluation of the program include quantitative measures showing improvement in the outcome(s) of interest after the implementation of the program (i.e. increase in smoking cessation, not just the delivery of a smoking cessation program). The outcome measure(s) is/are compared at relevant time periods before and after the intervention or program implementation. Alternatively, the evaluation study compares the outcome(s) between an intervention group and an appropriate control group.
  3. The study is of peer-review quality and presents numbers in a scientific manner; measurements of precision and reliability are included (e.g. confidence intervals, standard errors), results from statistical tests show a significant difference or change in the outcome measure(s), and relevant point estimates and p-values are presented. Note: if the results from an evaluation of a program are presented in a scientific manner and the outcome measure is improved compared to the baseline measurement or the control group but the difference is not statistically significant, the practice is classified as effective and not evidence-based.